1. Technical Field
The present invention—involving finishing and bookbinding devices for collating and stacking, as well as binding into booklets, sheets onto which images have been formed by an imaging device—relates to improvements in mechanisms for perforating sheets with binder holes, and collating and stacking the sheets, as well as binding them into booklets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Widely known among finishing devices (finishers) as well as bookbinding devices (bookbinders) of this type are in general devices that sequentially stow into a storage stacker sheets fed from a printer, scanner, or like imaging device, as well as devices that collate sheets into bundles and bind them into booklets. With the former—finishing devices—incorporating a built-in mechanism for punching holes into sheets, later provided to binders, in the course of the sheets being conveyed out is known. Meanwhile, in the latter—bookbinding devices—mechanisms for applying adhesive, or adding on adhesive tape, to the spine-portion endface of collated and stacked sheet bundles, and binding them together are known.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Pat. App. Pub. No. 2007-276967 (FIG. 1) proposes: a bookbinder in which sheets from an imaging device are collated and stacked, and adhesive is applied to the sheets and they are bound together with a coversheet; and a system apparatus wherein, in a finisher provided in association with the bookbinder, punch holes are perforated in sheets from the imaging device, and the sheets are stored in a storage stacker.
The device as cited above (JP 2007-276967) is a system in which the bookbinder, which is disposed at a downstream side of the imaging device, and the finisher, which is disposed at a downstream side thereof, are linked. In a bookbinding mode, the sheets fed to a carry-in path are bound in a booklet by the bookbinder while in a finishing mode, the sheets fed to the carry-in path are forwarded to the finisher, where holes are punched, seals or stamps are applied, and a jog segmentation is also done. The sheets are then stored in a storage stacker.
After that, the spine-portion endface of the sheet bundle collated and stacked in the bookbinder is applied adhesive (or an adhesive tape) so as to bind together the sheets. In this case, roughening the spine-portion endface of the sheet bundle in an uneven shape (milling process) is known. By roughening the spine endface, this process causes the adhesive to permeate, in order to prevent sheets from coming loose.
Examples of a mechanism include that proposed in FIG. 9 and FIG. 11 of Japanese Unexamined Pat. App. Pub. No. 2007-062145, which provides a saw-toothed punching blade in a transport path of the sheets and roughens the edge of the sheets with the punching blade, at the time of applying a milling process to the sheets sequentially fed from the imaging device. In the mechanism as cited above (JP 2007-062145), the sheets moved along the transport path are roughened by pushing a punching blade by a driving cam. The sheets are roughened one by one or several sheets are roughened by piling them on top of one another.
As mentioned above, it is well known that at the time of binding the sheets transported from an imaging device, etc., into a booklet, the roughened notched grooves are formed on the spine-closure edge, and the sheets are bound together by the adhesive, etc. In particular, in the patent reference cited earlier (JP 2007-062145), there is proposed the formation of the roughened punch holes in one or several pages of sheets at the stage prior to collating and stacking the sheets.
In the mechanism proposed in the patent reference (JP 2007-062145), the saw-toothed punching blade is moved up and down by using a clank arm. When milling grooves are formed on the spine-closure edge on the transport path of the sheets in this way, the mechanism becomes simplified and compact, providing an affordable milling process. However, in this type of conventionally known milling mechanism, the punching blade is saw-tooth shaped. Due to this shape, a punching blade in a round blade shape generally used for file binders, for example, cannot be diverted for this milling mechanism. This necessitates expensive manufacturing of the punching blade, and if some defects, such as a blade is chipped, develop in the blade during usage, the entire blade has to be replaced.
In the device or the system configuration in which the finishing function of punching holes for a binder is combined with the bookbinding function of punching holes for milling, as cited in the above patent reference (JP 2007-276967), a punch unit for file binders and that for milling have to be provided separately. This necessitates a large device, which increases a cost for the punch unit. As a result, its maintenance also becomes complicated, which are shortcomings.